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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A city panel in the U.S. capital voted on Wednesday to repeal a first-in-the-nation Internet gambling law for Washington, D.C., a spokeswoman said.

Support for online gambling had dried up as details surfaced about the roundabout way a contract was awarded to Greece's Intralot, the District of Columbia's lottery operator.

Stepping back from the online project, the city council's Finance Committee voted 3-2 to repeal a 2010 law that would have allowed it, said Denise Tolliver, chief of staff for Councilman Phil Mendelson, a sponsor of the bill.

The full 12-member council will hold the first of two votes on repeal on Tuesday, she said.

"They may start over. I don't think they are that far yet," Tolliver said.

Internet gambling received a blow this week when Mayor Vincent Gray, who has generally supported the plan, backed repeal.

Resistance to the plan had grown as details surfaced about how the law came about. Internet gambling was added to the city's lottery contract months after the contract passed a 2009 council vote. It was legalized through a 2010 spending bill.

No date had been set for launch. Washington would have been the first U.S. jurisdiction to have its own site dedicated to games such as online poker and blackjack.

Gray and other supporters had argued that the District of Columbia needed millions of dollars in revenues from online gambling. But that argument was weakened with the city's announcement in December that revenue in the current fiscal year was expected to top forecasts by $42 million.

Byron Boothe, Intralot's vice president for government affairs, said Washington "was really leading the (online gambling) charge and obviously they dropped the baton."

He said it would be difficult for the District of Columbia to revive the online gambling initiative since congressional sentiment has swung against state or local government oversight in favor of federal regulation.

A number of states are looking at Internet gambling, including Illinois, New York and Hawaii, he said. Nevada's Gaming Commission last year passed a framework to regulate online poker.

(Reporting By Ian Simpson; Editing by Cynthia Johnston)

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Washington D.C. steps back from Internet gambling launch

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LilMitch™ x J.StonerBeatz Collab - "Counting Money" [Full-Length] - Video

It takes money to make money. Most investors know that, but with business media so focused on the "how much," very few investors bother to ask, "How fast?"

When judging a company's prospects, how quickly it turns cash outflows into cash inflows can be just as important as how much profit it's booking in the accounting fantasy world we call "earnings." This is one of the first metrics I check when I'm hunting for the market's best stocks. Today, we'll see how it applies to Western Digital (NYSE: WDC  ) .

Let's break this down
In this series, we measure how swiftly a company turns cash into goods or services and back into cash. We'll use a quick, relatively foolproof tool known as the cash conversion cycle, or CCC for short.

Why does the CCC matter? The less time it takes a firm to convert outgoing cash into incoming cash, the more powerful and flexible its profit engine is. The less money tied up in inventory and accounts receivable, the more available to grow the company, pay investors, or both.

To calculate the cash conversion cycle, add days inventory outstanding to days sales outstanding, then subtract days payable outstanding. Like golf, the lower your score here, the better. The CCC figure for Western Digital for the trailing 12 months is 1.1.

For younger, fast-growth companies, the CCC can give you valuable insight into the sustainability of that growth. A company that's taking longer to make cash may need to tap financing to keep its momentum. For older, mature companies, the CCC can tell you how well the company is managed. Firms that begin to lose control of the CCC may be losing their clout with their suppliers (who might be demanding stricter payment terms) and customers (who might be demanding more generous terms). This can sometimes be an important signal of future distress -- one most investors are likely to miss.

In this series, I'm most interested in comparing a company's CCC to its prior performance. Here's where I believe all investors need to become trend-watchers. Sure, there may be legitimate reasons for an increase in the CCC, but all things being equal, I want to see this number stay steady or move downward over time.

Source: S&P Capital IQ. Dollar amounts in millions. FY = fiscal year. TTM = trailing 12 months.

Because of the seasonality in some businesses, the CCC for the TTM period may not be strictly comparable to the fiscal-year periods shown in the chart. Even the steadiest-looking businesses on an annual basis will experience some quarterly fluctuations in the CCC. To get an understanding of the usual ebb and flow at Western Digital, consult the quarterly-period chart below.

Source: S&P Capital IQ. Dollar amounts in millions. FQ = fiscal quarter.

On a 12-month basis, the trend at Western Digital looks very good. At 1.1 days, it is barely changed from the five-year average of 1.2 days. The biggest contributor to that improvement was DSO, which improved 3.7 days compared to the five-year average. That was partially offset by a 3.1-day increase in DIO.

Considering the numbers on a quarterly basis, the CCC trend at Western Digital looks good. At -15.4 days, it is 14.0 days better than the average of the past eight quarters. With both 12-month and quarterly CCC running better than average, Western Digital gets high marks in this cash-conversion checkup.

Though the CCC can take a little work to calculate, it's definitely worth watching every quarter. You'll be better informed about potential problems, and you'll improve your odds of finding the underappreciated home run stocks that provide the market's best returns.

Read more here:
A Hidden Reason That Western Digital's Earnings Are Outstanding

WASHINGTON (AP) — Are hardbound textbooks going the way of slide rules and typewriters in U.S schools?

Education Secretary Arne Duncan and Federal Communications Commission chairman Julius Genachowski on Wednesday challenged schools and companies to get digital textbooks in students' hands within five years. The Obama administration's push comes two weeks after Apple Inc. announced it would start to sell electronic versions of a few standard high-school books for use on its iPad tablet.

Digital books are viewed as a way to provide interactive learning, potentially save money and get updated material faster to students.

Digital learning environments have been embraced in five states. But many schools lack the broadband capacity or the computers or tablets to adopt the technology, and finding the money to go completely digital is difficult for many schools in tough economic times.

Tied to Wednesday's announcement at a digital town hall was the government's release of a 67-page "playbook" to schools that promotes the use of digital textbooks and offers guidance. The administration hopes that dollars spent on traditional textbooks can instead go toward making digital learning more feasible.

Going digital improves the learning process, and it is being rolled out at a faster pace in other countries such as South Korea, Genachowski said in an interview. Genachowski said he is hopeful it can be cost effective in the long run, especially as the price of digital tablets drops.

"When a student reads a textbook and gets to something they don't know, they are stuck," Genachowski said. "Working with the same material on a digital textbook, when they get to something they don't know, the device can let them explore, it can show them what a word means, how to solve a math problem that they couldn't figure out how to solve."

Students can use the textbooks for video explanations to help with homework, they can interact with molecules, and they can manipulate a digital globe to see stories and data about countries, said Karen Cator, director of the Education Department's office of education technology.

"We're not talking about the print based textbook now being digital. We're talking about a much more robust and interactive and engaging environment to support learning," Cator said.

About $8 billion is spent annually in the U.S. on textbooks for children in kindergarten through 12th grade, said Jay Diskey, the executive director of the school division of the Association of American Publishers. Diskey said textbook companies have been working on the technology for the past five years to eight years to transform the industry, but that in many cases, schools simply aren't ready.

"It's not only the future, it's the now. The industry has embraced this, but the difficulty does lie in the fact that schools are not yet fully equipped with the hardware. We hope that they get there soon," Diskey said.

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Challenge to US schools: Embrace digital textbooks

The coin toss begins the quest for the best foods along Super Bowl sidelines. It coincides with the serious game between the New England Patriots and the New York Giants on TV.

For our standing Super Bowl date with friends, we eat appetizers as the game starts, dinner at halftime and dessert amid confetti of the Lombardi Trophy presentation.

Chili bars, taco buffets, snacks and sandwiches offer tasty fun to those who do or don't understand touchdowns and punts. Options for pleasing taste buds outnumber fans.

Pre-planning keeps hot chicken wings from costing as much as a ticket into Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, reports the National Chicken Council. A single chicken's two wings are a small contribution to the 1.25 billion wing portions (100 million pounds) expected to be eaten during the weekend. Thus, restaurants and food service providers began stockpiling them long before the Rams won a game in late October. That keeps the hot appetizer affordable.

The third tip of the wing, called the flapper, is removed for Asian cuisine. The remaining meatier sides become Buffalo wings, traditionally deep-fried minus breading, then coated in sauce based on butter and vinegar-ish hot sauce. Classic companions are celery sticks and blue cheese dressing.

Some fans modify the flavor. Barbecue sauce, grilling and Asian specialties lead the way.

For Athenian Chicken Wings (www.eatchicken.com), marinate 2 pounds of chicken drumettes in a mixture of 1/3 cup olive oil, 1 teaspoon salt, 1/2 teaspoon black pepper, 1/3 cup lemon juice, 2 teaspoons fresh lemon zest and 2 teaspoons oregano for 20 to 30 minutes. On a baking sheet coated with nonstick cooking spray, bake wings in a preheated 350-degree oven for 20 minutes, flip them over and bake 15 minutes longer or until done. For dip, mix 1 cup Greek yogurt, 2 tablespoons honey, 1 teaspoon salt, 1/2 teaspoon pepper and 1/4 cup finely chopped green onion tops.

Don't neglect other chicken parts. For a similar dip, start with ranch or blue cheese dressing. Add a bit of buffalo wing sauce — carefully, as it heats up in a hurry. Chopped, cooked chicken can be added for warm dipping with hearty chips, or ready-to-heat chicken kabobs can be dipped into the mixture. Cream of celery soup adds authentic flavor.

Chicken is a favorite in chili. A recipe from Nielsen-Massey Vanillas uses its chocolate extract for flavor depth without red meat. Tune up or down seasonings and add more beans as desired.

HEARTY WHITE BEAN CHILI

2 tbsp. olive oil

3 boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut in medium dice

1 cup finely diced onion

4 cloves garlic, minced

1 cup chicken stock

1 can (28 oz.) diced tomatoes

1 can (29 oz.) tomato sauce

1 can (7 oz.) diced green chiles

2 tsp. ground cumin

2 tbsp. dried parsley

1 tbsp. dried oregano

1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper

1 tsp. kosher salt

2 tsp. chocolate extract

1 can (15 oz.) white kidney beans, drained

1/2 cup (2 oz.) freshly grated Parmesan cheese

In medium saute pan or skillet, heat olive oil over medium-high heat. Cook chicken 4 to 5 minutes until brown. Using slotted spoon, remove chicken from pan and set aside.

Add onion to pan and cook, stirring occasionally, until lightly browned and caramelized. Add garlic and cook 1 to 2 minutes. Pour in the chicken stock, scraping bottom of pan with wooden spoon to deglaze, loosening food particles from pan.

Pour stock mixture into large saucepan and add chicken, tomatoes, tomato sauce, chiles, cumin, parsley, oregano, cayenne and salt. Cover and simmer, stirring occasionally, 30 minutes. Add chocolate extract and beans. Cook 10 minutes longer.

Garnish individual servings with Parmesan cheese.

Note: Nielsen-Massey recommends seasoning the chili with its "pure" chocolate extract and organic chicken stock, parsley and oregano.

Makes 6 servings.

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HOME PLATE: Tasty Super Bowl foods ready to score on Sunday